The weather in Oklahoma is nuts.  It has been going from 65-70 degrees on one day to below freezing on the next--on a regular basis since early December.  One day I need gloves and a wind-breaker, the next I don't even need a sweater.  I'm not complaining.  The warm days are wonderful.

But of course, when it gets warm outside I get itchy to plant something.  Two more months and I'll start digging in the ground.  I made a big, big mistake in October when I had my gardener pull up the dead tomatoes and okra stalks and put them in the trash.  I forgot to tell him to save the okra pods.  I always leave five or six big pods to use as seed for the next year.

The seed comes from my dad's garden.  I've kept it going by collecting it at the end of the season for years.  It just adds something special when I pick okra from my dads "okra heritage."  I think that maybe I have some seed left over from last year.  I'll pull out my seed box and find out come March.  If I don't have any, maybe Scott does.  He is the only other gardner in the family.

I love the scripture from Psalms1:1-3 that says, "Blessed is the person...whose delight is in the law of the Lord...he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper."  He's planted.  Firm.

If you are planted in the right place, your roots will automatically have water--you will be fed--and you won't have to grunt and groan to produce fruit.  It will just happen as a result of being where God wants you.  And as the fruit ripens and falls to the ground, some of the seeds inside the fruit will fall on good ground.  Some of it will take root and produce new trees in like kind.

What is this fruit that the tree produces--which of course is the fruit of a Christian life.  Paul tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.  Nine characteristics we should possess.  And exhibit to others.

You don't have to grunt and groan to produce Christian fruit.  They are the automatic result of drawing from the water of God's words.  We grow, we mature, the fruit in our lives ripens and we become useful in His kingdom to those around us.  It is a continual cycle.  Get planted.